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I travelled to the north side of Sydney recently, arriving by train at Milson’s Point railway station. I was greeted by a flourescent Harbour Bridge, with lights climbing over the arch. I had forgotten that there was a light show on around Sydney harbour.

Traffic travelling north roared off the Bridge right beside the railway station. Luckly I had forgotten the tripod.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge presides over the brightly lit city. I used the timer, but the camera was not quite stable balanced on a garbage bin lid, creating this interesting vertical blur.

Sydney Central Business District appears as a ghostly apparition.

An impressionist image of the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Hopefully I will never gain full control of the camera, so that I can keep allowing it to take interesting and surprising pictures.

I have not been using photography as much as I thought I would on my other blog, so when I took these, I thought of you here on ImageChest. I’ve missed you! I am still deciding how to organise my blogging and other projects, and am thinking maybe I do want to keep this outlet for photography.

The northern side of Sydney Harbour touches down at Milson’s Point, with the dazzle of Luna Park tucked in under tall apartment blocks. On this weekday evening, Luna Park was closed, sending the message that there was fun to be had, but not now. Loved the contrasting red and green of these picnic tables in the function area.

Amusements were closed and wrapped for another day.

The roller coaster wasn’t going anywhere.

But the bright lights still beckoned.

Three Sydney icons in one image, Luna Park, the Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Always smiling, the entrance to Luna Park has a creepy aspect at dusk. Perhaps its those never-blinking eyes, or those gravestone teeth.

The classic Sydney Harbour Bridge View. I set the camera on the night setting and rested it on a post. It did the rest.

A view of a brightly lit pylon from the north east aspect.

Its getting dark now and the Bridge is reflecting on the water. The Sydney CBD to the left.

I am glad we have finally arrived at my home town of Sydney. Travel photography is great, but its nice to be able to share something of my own area of the world.

Having given up the greeting card enterprise I am now finding that there is less need to have a separate photography blog, especially since I am not travelling. I have been trying to maintain three blogs, but finding it very time consuming and something always slips behind. So I am going to take a break from this ImageChest blog and explore combining writing and photography on the May and September Blog which has more of a focus on writing and reflection. The aim is to combine words and images on that blog to present the world as I see it, and hope you will join me over there.

Recently I had the opportunity for an evening stroll around an area of Sydney called Lavender Bay. On my walk down from North Sydney I passed this Secret Garden, complete with lavender plants. Not sure about the signage.

Here I caught a glimpse of the boats moored in the Bay. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park formed a spectacular backdrop. Lavendar Bay is on the north side of the harbour, to the west of the Bridge, and has a good view of the city.

Real estate on Lavender Bay is expensive due to waterfront location and stunning views. Yachts and cruisers nestle into their moorings, apparently unaware of their spectacular surroundings.

Notice anything alarming about the roof of this boat? A snake. Someone’s idea of a joke, or perhaps in lieu of a guard dog?

From this wharf we have a good view of the Harbour Bridge and the central business district on the south side of the harbour.

Here you can see the walkway which goes around past Luna Park and under the northern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Milsons Point is crammed with apartment blocks jockeying for a good view.

Looking back at Lavender Bay at dusk.

In the next post we will take a closer look at Luna Park and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can read more about my evening walk by the harbour and view the out-takes in a post called Finding Focus on my May and September Blog.

While staying in Austinmer to the north I decided to take advantage of the local bus for a day trip to Bulli, the final stop off on our virtual holiday on the Illawarra Coast. My only memory of this area was hair-raising trips down the notorious Bulli Pass, the steep mountain pass which links the top of the Illawarra Escarpment to the coastal area below.

After alighting from the bus I proceeded to walk east to find the ocean. Little did I know the coastal strip is much wider here than at Austinmer, and it was quite a long way before I saw any water. I was relieved to come across an afternoon soccer game at Bulli Park, with the Pacific Ocean behind it.

As I approached the headland I could see parasurfers taking advantage of the waves off the point.

Looking to the north towards Sarandon Point, the sun was gleaming on the water of the bay.

A traditional Australian seawater pool looked lovely, but being mid-winter, no-one was having a splash.

Instead, families were making the most of the nearby playground.

To the south was a long sweep of beach towards Bellambi.

A nice day to be out with the metal detector looking for treasure.

This is how we do winter on the Australian east coast. I guess I am pretty lucky to live in such a temperate part of the world.

I found a bus stop and was happy to continue my day trip in the area in the comfortable, if infrequent, local buses.

Looking to the south from the Austinmer headland we see Little Austi Beach. At the far end of the beach is another smaller headland which takes you around to the main beach featured in an earlier post.

Down on the beach the rock platform reveals its geometry.

The triangular rocks make for interesting rock pools.

Sea creatures trace patterns in the sand of the rock pool, revealing the multi-coloured rock underneath.

A sharks egg captured my attention. I had never seen one before. Apparently they are sometimes called a Mermaid’s Purse. I think this is the egg of the Port Jackson shark. What an great specimen.

Up close, the seaweed situation is looking out of hand. There has been a bad storm and a huge volume of kelp has been dumped at the south end of the beach.

Sky, sea and seaweed make a great combination for a photo. Not so inviting for a dip in the ocean.